1. Human nature

Abstract

‘Human nature’ looks at the theory of human nature developed by Hume in Books One and Two of A Treatise of Human Nature. In these books, Hume’s theory of nature is presented as an account of the faculty of understanding, of the passions, and of the relation between them. The biographical context for this theory of human nature is important here, in terms of the intellectual crisis that Hume went through in the early 1730s. Key influences on Hume’s theory of human nature included Pierre Bayle, Bernard Mandeville, and John Locke. Hume reformulated his theory of human nature in his later works. There are limitations of the theory as can be revealed in remarks made by Hume about racial difference.